Esther Ngan-ling Chow (PhD University of CA-Los Angeles) has a wide range of teaching and research interests that span from the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality; work and family; social inequality and justice; ethnic community; gender and development; migration, globalization and social change; transnationalism, economic sociology; feminist methodology and pedagogy; citizenship; policy studies; and Chinese/Asian American studies.  She pioneered scholarship on the intersectionality of race, class, gender and sexuality in the early 1980s, particularly in the case of Asian American women.  She investigated the social history and formation of ethnic community of Chinatown in Washington D.C., a gateway city for immigrants.  She has been at the forefront of studying gender, family, work and policy from global perspectives.  Her current research focuses on the issues of citizenship, identity, and empowerment of women workers in circular migration in rural China across times and places.  Her work reflects expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies with a recent emphasis on participatory action research. 

She was a Fulbright New Century Scholar, 2004-2005 and recipients of numerous research grant awards, including from the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Science Found.  She was honored with a Feminist Activism Award (2008) and Mentoring Award (2000) by Sociologists for Women in Society; Outstanding Teaching Award by the Asia and Asian America Section of the American Sociological Association; and Stuart Rice Award for Career Achievement (2006) and Morris Rosenberg Award for Recent Achievement (2002) by the District of Columbia Sociological Society; Distinguished Faculty Award by the Offices of Multicultlural Affairs and International Student Services (2000, AU), and the Outstanding Scholarship Award in Social and Behavioral Sciences, from the Washington Academy of Social Science (1995).  She has served as an editorial board member for Gender & Society, International Sociology, and Rose Series monograph on sociology and social policy. She has been active in many national and global professional associations and scientific communities.  Her elected positions include member-at-large on the Council of the American Sociological Association, Chair of the Asia and Asian America Section (ASA), and Vice President of the Eastern Sociological Society.  She is currently the Co-President of the Research Committee 32, “Women in Society” of the International Sociological Association.  Her publications include several journal publications and books on Women, the Family, and Policy: A Global Perspective (1994), Race, Class and Gender: Common Bonds and Difference Voices (1996), Transforming Gender and Development in East Asia (2002), “Globalization, Gender, and Social Change in the 21st Century” guest-edited special issue of International Sociology (2003), and Women and Citizenship in Local/Global World (forthcoming).